Since the start of this new business model in 2013, the weekend market businesses has earned a significant place in Saigonese’s modern culture, especially among the youngsters. A flea market is similar to a garage sale, but on a larger scale, and more diversified. Despite a growth in markets quantity, each market still has that unique, “hipster” elements thanks to many cool boutiques inside and themed decoration. Today, there are at least 4 major weekend markets in Saigon that keep attracting a lot of shoppers each weekend. This article will focus on the two new markets that are creating some big buzz in the young community. And the other ones will feature on the next entry about flea market origin.
Four Seasons Market – Supply Labour Palace (55 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 1)
This market was founded by a hot actress on YouTube – Ngoc Thao and launched its first session since the start of May. Although the birth of it was pretty late for this type of business in Saigon but surprisingly, Four Seasons has gained a lot of reputation and attract more and more shoppers since then. In my point of view, the market isn’t big but it is well organized. While women clothes are dominant here, there are still some shops for men accessories, and food stalls. 
Besides, the cool boutiques, there’s a theme for each session and live acoustic performances every night from 6pm-8pm. To sum up, this market is good enough to compete with the others ones and worth a visit to see if you like it or not. 
The New District – Cargo Event Space (7 Nguyen Tat Thanh, District 4) 
This brand new market have just debuted its first session in the last weekend. After this, weekend market businesses has become more competitive than ever before. Here are some of my impressions on the New District:
The New District is located in Cargo Event Space which is previously a night club/bar, and it’s a really cool place in my opinion. Overall, the New District first session was well decorated with white clouds, balloons and …transparent umbrellas hanging all around the place, which is pretty outstanding way of decoration I think. But you may not find those clouds in the next session because each session has its own theme and the one I’ve just told you is “Head on the clouds”, so that’s why the clouds are there. Oh, there’s a DJ playing hits for people to chill out while shopping as well. 
There are much more women’s clothes than men’s. Most of the brands are local ones, with high quality, trendy products selling at adequate prices. With the fact that the shoppers attended the market was mostly women, it’s acceptable for the market to concentrates on selling mostly women’s clothes. The shoppers dressed pretty trendy and elegant here. Lastly, I felt that the shopping atmosphere is … not quite there as in the Four Seasons market. It’s hard to explain this, but I believe you could feel a little bit like that when you visit there.
To conclude, if you are a young girl or a woman, you should definitely check this one out, it’s worth having some good shopping time with cool vibes all around. If you are a guy, it’s also a great place for you to hang out with your girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s), to shop some kick-ass clothes for her or just chillin’ around, pick up some girls, it’s up to you. These two weekend market will both open their next sessions on August 22nd to 23rd. So save the date (and your money) to visit them.
Lý Thành Cơ 